Placing Literature Launches Collection of Novels by Place, Enabling Author Discovery by Location

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - April 1, 2014 - PRLog -- Placing Literature (PlacingLiterature.com) today launched a series of literary collections that highlight novels that take place in specific locations such as a city, country or region. Enabling author discovery by location, the collections will allow readers from around the world find authors in a completely different way—by place. The first two Placing Literature Collections—Queensland, Australia, and the Catalonia Region of Spain—launched today on PlacingLiterature.com and are curated by the State Library of Queensland and Espais Escrits (Written Spaces: the Catalan Literary Heritage Network). The 500 places mapped by the two organizations have been added to Placing Literature’s existing database of 1,900 literary places around the world.

Location-based author discovery is a new concept that allows readers to find new authors and titles by a particular place. A person who is a fan of crime literature in Detroit can discover other books that take place nearby. Or a tourist traveling to London can investigate novels that take place in the city to get a better sense of the people who live there.

“Knowing where a particular piece of fiction takes place gives people a heightened reading experience where they can empathize with the characters and get a better sense of their culture, history and motivations,” said Anna Raunik, Executive Manager of Discovery, the State Library of Queensland. “Placing Literature takes it one step further by actually allowing readers to walk in the shoes of a character while going to the public spaces where they relax, the restaurants they frequent, and the places they call home.”

Placing Literature is the global clearinghouse for location-based literary information, collecting crowdsourced information about books and the places where they take place—and displaying them all on an interactive world map. Creating local collections gives libraries, cultural organizations and researchers a platform in which to filter and promote local literature with a global audience. The Queensland Collection includes works of fiction by David Malouf, Banjo Paterson and David Williamson while the Catalonia Collection includes novels, short stories and poems by Catalan authors such as Josep Pla and Maria Angels Anglada.

“It’s extremely important to preserve the literature of a place—especially when that literature is written in a minority language such as Catalan,” said Mireia Munmany Muntal of Espais Escrits. “Including our data on Placing Literature allows readers and researchers from around the world to discover novels written in the Catalan language by Catalan authors.”

Placing Literature is also putting out a request for data for future location-based collections of literary places. Libraries, universities, cultural organizations and researchers should contact info@placingliterature.com if they have existing data or would like to work with Placing Literature to create content through local programming.

About Placing Literature

Placing Literature (PlacingLiterature.com) is a crowdsourcing website that maps literary scenes that take place in real locations. Map a scene from your favorite novel or explore the literature of a place at http://www.placingliterature.com. Follow us at Facebook.com/PlacingLiterature and twitter.com/PlacingLit.